Yes you heard it! Stand Up and Paddleboards were included in this year’s SA S1 Surfski Championship and SA Canoe Marathon Championship in St Francis Bay.
The weekend started with an ocean race on the Saturday. Kit Beaton, Jadon Wessels and Paige Horn were our three proners who took on the grueling 14 km ocean race that greeted the paddlers with great southerly winds. Chiara Vorster (Junior girl) proved her incredible determination and great training as the only Stand Up Paddle that took on this ocean race. We are incredibly proud of you, Chiara. See the results, below:
SUP Women
- Chiara Vorster – 2:07:49
Prone Men
- Jadon Wessels – 1:51:01
- Kit Beaton – 1:51:08
Prone Women
- Paige Horn – 1:58:28
Sunday brought on the Canoe Marathon/ Flatwater Race that SUPSA selected as a sanctioned event for their annual calendar. Our paddlers were getting ready to take on the last batch in the race. The team were met with blue skies, light winds and a great winding course, set to meander between the houses with plenty of technical turns, hidden poles, sand banks and currents under the narrow bridges. The race included two portages on the three lap course (Open Men and Women) and one portage for the two lap course (Junior SUPs and Proners). In both instances the portage was to be skipped on the first lap. This reasoning by the organisers became well understood in the desire to have the field more spread out to avoid congestion and this added an exciting technical aspect to the racing. Each full lap consisted of twists and turns over 4.7 kms and in both race distances there was a short extra loop of around 1 km around the top end of the canal and past the headland to the finish (or Spit as it’s known) and the moves in this part of the race, dubbed “the sausage lap” would invariably define the end results.
The Junior paddlers, Cameron, Migael and Chiara could choose between doing the SUPSA distance for the junior category, being 2 laps, or compete with the open category who did 3 laps. Cameron and Chiara opted for the 3 laps with the open men and women and Miggie did the 2 laps with the prones. CSA facilitated and assisted the paddlers with these teething problems, being the first official race with them and it’s something that will no doubt be resolved by the evergreen Anja Burger from SUPSA, whom was on top of matters the whole weekend from her phone in Johannesburg, as was our SUPSA President Mandy Scanlen from Cape Town. A big thanks to them both and in getting us there in the first place and that tons of hard work behind the scenes was brought to fruition!
The SUPs and Prones started at a frenetic pace, really setting the scene for anybody who did not know we actually race. See the results below:
Open Men Results
- Cameron Tripney – 1:43:50
- Kimon Dos Santos – 1:44:11
- Gary Van Rooyen – 1:50:59
- Thomas King – 1:55:54
- Craig Girdlestone – 2:03:00
Open Women Results
- Tarryn King – 1:55:51
- Chiara Vorster – 2:02: 59
- Elmari Renecle – 2:09:33
- Evette Terblanche – 2:14:04
Junior Boys
- Migael Terblanche -1:16:27
Prone Men
- Connor Botha – 1:13:31
- Jonny Lucas – 1:16:51
- Jadon Wessels – 1:19:02
- Kit Beaton – 1:19:29
Prone Women
- Paige Horn – 1:40:41
- Carmel Billson – 1:40:41
We look forward to the next race!
Write up by Steve Tripney.
Great photos by Chris Scott’s Photography.
